The first releases from the Swedish melodic death/ heavy metal act Carnal Grief were a couple of demos released in 1997 and 1998. Their second demo landed the band a record deal and they released their debut album OUT OF CRIPPLED SEEDS in 2004. However, the deal didn’t last for a long period of time and the next step to success was to ink a deal with GMR Music Group. Even though Carnal Grief’s music is really heavy it isn’t so fast which makes it much easier to enjoy the more melodic parts and the technical challenges the band members takes on.

A big musical inspiration for the band is Arch Enemy and that is something you really can hear in Carnal Grief’s music. However, it’s not always a good thing to be so inspired by other already established acts. In the case of Carnal Grief, I think the band sounds a little too much like Arch Enemy. Many of the songs sounds just like Arch Enemy and instead of copying, I think the band should have the courage to stand on their own feet because they sure have the capability to do it.

If you look away from the influences and instead focus on the material you will find a very promising act that has the ability to become a major band in their genre in the future. However, to manage to go the entire way the band simply have to expand past their most obvious influences or at least disguise them better and incorporate their own music into it. All of the guys are talented musicians and the singer is really awesome but please bide your time and deliver something astounding the next time, something that screams Carnal Grief instead of Arch Enemy.